Children’s
education is burning three times as big a hole in the pocket for Delhi parents
as it did seven years ago. A government survey shows amid rising fees charged
by private schools and colleges, education spends nearly trebled over the
period in the Capital and doubled nationally.
The National
Sample Survey Office survey across states released this week shows the annual
cost for educating a child in 2014 was Rs 6,788 for general education, Rs
62,841 for technical or professional programmes and Rs 27,676 for vocational
training — a massive jump from the 2007-08 figures of Rs 2,461, Rs 32,112 and
Rs 14,881, respectively.
Among
states, Delhi witnessed the highest rise, as the average annual expenditure for
both government and private schools shot up from Rs 6,149 to Rs 19,941.
Admitting
that school fees had increased exponentially, a Delhi government official said
implementation of the latest pay commission recommendations increased the
burden on schools, which was passed on to parents. “I believe school fees in
Delhi are comparable with those in cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore,” the
official said.
The survey
does not provide a city-wise comparison of education spends, except in case of
Chandigarh, a Union territory, where the annual expenditure per child saw a
jump of about Rs 6,000 to hit Rs 18,426.
Apart from
Delhi, school fees in Goa, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Karnataka
and Uttar Pradesh also trebled over the seven-year period.
The survey
also showed the gap on spending between rural and urban India is shrinking,
especially in higher education.
The overall
cost appears low nationally because it includes the highly subsidised education
provided by the government through 1.4 million schools and 10,000 higher
education institutions.
But a
breakdown of data shows the cost of providing education in private institutions
in 2014 was about 11 times that in government schools, where parents may have
to pay for transport, uniform and extra coaching classes but not tuition fees.
The cost of higher education from a private institution is about three times
that in one run by the government.
Only a fifth
of all girls who enrol at the primary level complete higher education compared
with half of the boys. The cost disadvantage for providing higher education to
a girl child weighs heavily on the minds of parents as they prefer to provide
education to sons instead of daughters, a University Grants Commission official
said.
On the
brighter side, the survey shows that the quest for education has increased in
India over the past decade, so private education providers promising quality
have witnessed a boom. This is also quantified by HRD ministry data for 2014
showing a substantial increase in enrolment in private schools, with admissions
in government schools stagnant.
An inference
that education policy makers could draw is that parents are willing to pay more
for education, provided quality is ensured.
Surveys by
advocacy group Pratham have shown that learning levels in government schools
are falling across states, a reason for parents to opt for private schools.
But, an HRD ministry official cites the 25% quota for students from
economically weaker sections in private schools under the Right To Education
Act as the reason for the shift.
Education
activists blame the lack of fee regulation for the huge rise in private school
fees. The schools counter that by saying parents pay for the service they get
as education is highly competitive in the country.
Source
| Hindustan Times | 3 July 2015
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